Hegseth says Pentagon will review Mark Kelly’s US weapons stockpile remarks
Defense secretary accuses senator of disclosing classified info but Kelly says ‘that’s not classified, it’s a quote from you’
Pete Hegseth said he has referred Senator Mark Kelly to Pentagon lawyers for allegedly disclosing classified information about depleted US weapons stockpiles – information Kelly says he heard from the defense secretary, in public, under oath.
Speaking on CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday, Kelly said American inventories of Tomahawk cruise missiles, Army Tactical Missile Systems, SM-3 interceptors, Thaad rounds and Patriot missiles had been severely drawn down during the Iran conflict, warning that replenishment could take years and leave the US exposed in any future confrontation with China.
Hegseth responded on X, accusing Kelly of disclosing details from a classified Pentagon briefing and saying the department’s legal counsel would review whether the senator had violated his oath.
“Now he’s blabbing on TV (falsely & dumbly) about a *CLASSIFIED* Pentagon briefing he received,” Hegseth wrote on social media. “Did he violate his oath…again?”
Kelly then countered that the information didn’t come from a classified press briefing, but rather from Hegseth’s own mouth while at a late April Senate briefing on the Pentagon’s future budget and war with Iran.
“That’s not classified, it’s a quote from you,” Kelly wrote. “This war is coming at a serious cost and you and the president still haven’t explained to the American people what the goal is.”
The exchange did indeed happen between the two men on 30 April at the Senate armed services committee hearing conducted in an open session, where Kelly asked Hegseth directly: “How many years will it take to replenish our munitions from Trump’s war in Iran?”
“Months and years,” Hegseth responded. “Fast.”
The confrontation is the latest in a dispute between the two men stretching back to last fall, when Kelly joined five fellow Democratic lawmakers – all veterans or former intelligence officials – in a video reminding military personnel they are legally obligated to refuse unlawful orders. The other participants included Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Representatives Chris Deluzio, Chrissy Houlahan, Maggie Goodlander and Jason Crow.
Hegseth responded by formally censuring Kelly, opening a Pentagon investigation and seeking to strip him of his retired rank of captain under a federal statute that allows retired service members to be recalled for potential court-martial.
But a federal court temporarily blocked both actions, ruling the Pentagon had probably violated Kelly’s first amendment rights and those of millions of military retirees. Hegseth appealed, and last week a three-judge panel of the US court of appeals for the DC circuit heard oral arguments, showing little receptiveness to the government’s position.
Donald Trump had called the six lawmakers traitors who had committed sedition and suggested they should face execution, a comment he later attempted to retract. Days afterwards Slotkin, a former CIA officer, received a bomb threat.
The Department of Justice separately opened a criminal investigation into the video, and a grand jury declined to bring charges in February.
The Pentagon declined to respond to the scope of its legal review, the consequences, and whether the investigation has already begun.
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